Saiga antelope
Saiga tatarica (Linnaeus, 1766)
The saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is a mammal of the family Bovidae, subfamily Antilopinae, in the order Artiodactyla. It is a large, terrestrial, diurnal herbivore of grassland habitats, with an adult body mass of 29 kg and up to 38 kg.
Quick facts about the saiga antelope
Gestation lasts 149 days, litters average 1.6 young, and sexual maturity is reached at 306 days (10 months). The IUCN Red List classifies the saiga antelope as Near Threatened in its global assessment, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 29 kg – 38 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 12 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- grasslandsrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 138 days – 149 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1.58src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 10 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1.05src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Migratorysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Near Threatened (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the saiga antelope
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the saiga antelope live?
Not recorded
What is the saiga antelope?
The saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica, ), or simply saiga, is a species of antelope which during antiquity inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe, spanning the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the northwest and Caucasus in the southwest into Mongolia in the northeast and Dzungaria in the southeast. During the Pleistocene, it ranged across the mammoth steppe from the British Isles to Beringia. Today, the dominant subspecies (S. t. tatarica) only occurs in Kalmykia and Astrakhan Oblast of Russia and in the Ural Mountains, Ustyurt Plateau and Betpak-Dala regions of Kazakhstan. A portion of the Ustyurt population migrates south to Uzbekistan and occasionally to Turkmenistan in winter. It is regionally extinct in Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, China and southwestern Mongolia. The Mongolian subspecies (S. t. mongolica) occurs only in western Mongolia.
From the Wikipedia article “Saiga antelope” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saiga_antelope&oldid=1381463288), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the saiga antelope endangered?
The saiga antelope is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Near Threatened species.
How is the saiga antelope classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderArtiodactyla
- familyBovidae
- genusSaiga
- SpeciesSaiga tatarica (Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms Antilope borealis, Capra tatarica, Ibex imberbis, Saiga borealis, Saiga borealis borealis, Saiga colus, Saiga imberbis, Saiga sayga, Saiga scythica, Saiga tatarica tatarica
Other names and names in other languages (61)
- Mongolian saigaEnglish
- Mongolian saigaEnglish
- SaigaEnglish
- SaigaEnglish
- SaigaEnglish
- Steppe saigaEnglish
- Western saigaEnglish
- Western saigaEnglish
- Western saiga antelopeEnglish
- Western saiga antelopeEnglish
- سايغاArabic
- ظبي السايغاArabic
- SayqakAzerbaijani
- СайғаҡBashkir
- Sajga tatarskáCzech
- SteppensaigaGerman
- Steppen-SaigaGerman
- Westliche SaigaGerman
- Westliche SaigaantilopeGerman
- Αντιλόπη ΣάιγκαGreek
- Altnaza antilopoEsperanto
- Antilope SaigaSpanish
- Antílope SaigaSpanish
- Antilope saiga TátaroSpanish
- کل سکاییPersian
- SaïgaFrench
- Antilope saïgaFrench
- סאיגהHebrew
- साइगाHindi
- szajgaHungarian
- Antelop saigaIndonesian
- Antilope delle steppeItalian
- サイガJapanese
- საიგაGeorgian
- БөкенKazakh
- АқбөкенKazakh
- Ak bokonKazakh
- 사이가산양Korean
- БөкөнKyrgyz
- БөхөнMongolian
- Mongol bokhonMongolian
- ဆိုင်ဂါးတောဆိတ်Burmese
- SaigaantilopeNorwegian Bokmål
- Suhak StepowyPolish
- سیگاWestern Panjabi
- Antilopa SaigaRomanian
- СайгаRussian
- Сайга́Russian
- Сайга́кRussian
- SaigakRussian
- sajgaSlovenian
- СајгаSerbian
- SaigaantilopSwedish
- СайдакTajik
- กุยThai
- SaygaTurkish
- قاڭشارلىق بۆكەنUyghur
- СайгакUkrainian
- SaygʻoqUzbek
- Linh dương SaigaVietnamese
- 高鼻羚羊Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataIUCN Red List
Relatives of the saiga antelope
Other species in the same genus Saiga.
Mongolian saiga
Saiga mongolica
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the saiga antelope?
The saiga antelope is a mammal in the family Bovidae, subfamily Antilopinae, order Artiodactyla.
How heavy is the saiga antelope?
An adult Saiga antelope has a body mass of 29 kg, with values up to 38 kg reported, placing it in the large size class.
What does the saiga antelope eat?
The saiga antelope is a herbivore.
What habitat does the saiga antelope live in?
The saiga antelope lives in grassland, where it is terrestrial and diurnal.
Is the saiga antelope endangered?
No, it is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does the saiga antelope live?
The saiga antelope has a lifespan of 12 years.
How many young does the saiga antelope have?
The saiga antelope has 1.6 young per litter and 1.05 litters per year, after a gestation period of 149 days.
Who named the saiga antelope?
The scientific name Saiga tatarica is credited to (Linnaeus, 1766).
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/saiga-antelope
“Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/saiga-antelope.
@misc{saiga_antelope_2026,
title = {Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/saiga-antelope},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}